Castel-A-Mare
Castel-A-Mare, scene of a spectacular haunting in the early
twentieth century, was a three-story residence located in rural
Devon, near Torkay, England. Suspecting a haunting situation,
in 1917 the owner cooperated with a group of Spiritualists in
an investigation of the house. A female medium was engaged
and Violet Tweedale (18621936), a Spiritualist writer, included
in the investigation party. The account left by Tweedale provides
the primary surviving record of the haunting.
The investigation occurred during two sessions with the medium
who entered a trance state and was seemingly possessed
by the entities who were haunting the building. In the first session,
a violent male entity seemed to be the person manifesting
through the medium. He delivered a series of expletives and
attacked one of the party, drawing blood. However, little information
was received. At the second sitting, a female entity appeared,
and from her a story emerged a multiple murder. It appeared
that a male house guest, a doctor, went berserk and
killed the master of the house and strangled his maid. During
the second session, when the murderer initially manifested
himself, he was driven away with an exorcism. Then the maid
appeared and reenacted a drama as if having just found her
dead master and then being killed herself.
Following the session, Tweedale checked the name of the
master with local records but found no record of any murders.
It was speculated that possibly the doctor murderer had written
the death certificate and had listed the death as natural. He
could have said that the maid had merely moved on. If such is
the case, however, it does not explain the continued haunting
by the murderers spirit.
In 1920, Castel-A-Mare was dismantled and the land turned
into a garden.
Sources
Chard, Judy. Devon Mysteries. Bodmin Bossiney Books,
1979.
Tweedale, Violet. Ghosts I Have Seen. London Herbert Jenkins,
n.d.
